How to Use Positive Affirmations

Positive affirmations have helped thousands of people; in case you were wondering, affirmations do work, but not every affirmation will work for every person, and not every way of using them will have the same effects with everyone. That’s why it’s important to know how to properly use the affirmations, and how to personalize them to work for you the best way possible.

Structuring Your Positive Affirmations

The first prerequisite for a positive affirmation to work for you is that it resonates with you personally. You can read more about how positive affirmations work, but essentially they’re a way to re-write the negative self-beliefs that hold us back. As the negative beliefs have been our companion for a long time, and mainly in our subconscious (which is pretty stubborn and doesn’t like changes), we can’t use just any positive affirmation and expect it to work miracles.

You see, you have your own experiences, your own way of saying things, your own belief system. If you use some general affirmation you will, of course, understand the words and the meaning, but it probably won’t be able to ignite your emotions – and it’s the emotions that will ultimately manifest what you desire, not the words themselves.

As we have already said, there are many ways to structure and to repeat your positive affirmations, and they all depend on your personal style, but there are some “rules” that you might want to consider when creating your own affirmations:

They should be in present tense. The goal that you’re trying to achieve by using affirmations is to persuade your subconscious that what you’re saying is happening now, and that it should immediately begin to act upon it. For example, if your intended outcome is to lose wight, you can use something like: “I am losing weight right now”. If you feel that you don’t actually believe in that statement, you can re-word it to something that your unconscious can accept more easily, and establish a sincere belief, like: “I am allowing myself to lose weight.”

They shouldn’t be too far from your actual belief, or your current situation. We have talked about the power of negative and limiting beliefs: if the change you want to manifest is too different from your current state, you will probably find it difficult to sincerely believe that it’s on its way. For example, if you want to be making more money, and you’re currently earning $1500 a month, jumping to one million a month straight away won’t seem very believable to your mind, and no variation of “I am on my way to making $1,000,000 a month” affirmation will be able to persuade it’s true; however, earning $3000 or $5000 a month is a reasonable goal, and an affirmation like “I am dedicated to earning $5000 a month” will have much more success. You should stretch beyond your current situation – you’re trying to make a noticeable change here, after all – just make sure it’s something that you can deeply believe in.

They should be positively oriented. According to the law of attraction, the universe gives you more of what your thoughts are focused on, be it positive or negative. The affirmations work the same way. If you say: “I don’t want to be fat anymore”, you’re doing just the opposite of what you do want – your subconscious will focus on the word “fat” and the universe will focus on “want” and… – well, you get the picture 😉 . Structure your affirmations so that they express only the change you do want to manifest, and place your focus on the intended outcome. And while we’re at it: the word “want” implies the lack, that you don’t have something, so you should avoid it when creating your affirmations.

Avoid abbreviations and contractions. This may seem petty, but just say out loud: “I’m a happy and positive person” and “I am a happy and positive person” to feel the difference. The abbreviations make the affirmations more casual and less focused, and you want just the opposite.

Repeating Your Positive Affirmations

In the previously mentioned article, How positive affirmations work, we have explained why it’s important to repeat them regularly – we have to be persistent if we want to beat our subconscious negative beliefs. This is also a matter of personal choice, but have this in mind:

Repeat your affirmations at least two times a day. The first set in the morning, when you wake up, and the second set right before bedtime. Apart from these sessions, you can repeat them every time your mind is not engaged in something important, and when you can relax and release any physical, emotional or mental tension.

Say them multiple times. Repeat each affirmation 5-10 times (the whole session shouldn’t last longer than 5 minutes, you might get tired and stop paying attention to their meaning).

Speak slowly and in a confident tone of voice. Say your affirmations like you believe them. Whenever you can, take a few minutes before saying them to prepare – to focus on your intended outcome, and to allow yourself to believe that it’s happening. Then clearly say each word, and mean what you’re saying.

Make a commitment. Repeat your affirmations for 30 days when you start, no matter what – it’s only 10-15 minutes a day, and you surely can find that time.

Walk the Talk

Remember when we talked about the main principles of the law of attraction? Positive affirmations are a fantastic simple tool for focusing your thoughts on a positive change you want to manifest, but they’re exactly that – a tool; just like visualization or any other tool, affirmations by themselves won’t manifest anything unless you focus on what you’re saying, unless you believe in it, and unless you act accordingly.

Properly structuring and repeating your affirmations will help you do all of it, but there has to be some sort of supporting action – there’s no point in affirming that you’re getting slimmer and slimmer every day if you’re not prepared to follow your diet plan, or to regularly exercise. Each element here should work to support the others: your desire, formulated and expressed through your affirmation, will ignite the emotions of calm, joy and gratitude, and as your thoughts will be constantly focused on your goal, the feelings that you’ll be having will strengthen your belief in the change ahead of you, pushing you to take adequate actions to get what you want.

Now you can take a look at our page with some examples of positive affirmations that you can use as models for creating your own, or use as is if you find that they resonate with you. Remember – it’s your own life, and you’re the only one who knows what works for you 🙂